Financial IT people aren't imagining things: Their jobs are definitely getting tougher. While computing resources are becoming less expensive and more plentiful, staffing levels, for the most part, are remaining constant. This resource gap is putting stress on IT organizations because the professionals in those departments must deal with increasingly complex systems that don't interact well with each other. Furthermore, innovations such as digital check cashing, biometric security and mobile apps have enhanced the consumer experience significantly, but they've also put new strains on IT workers who must implement and leverage those technologies.

Automation is essential, particularly the kind that can accommodate the mix of physical, virtual and cloud resources that define most enterprise tasks. Financial services IT departments must become more agile, and fortunately, there are ways to simplify common processes through intelligent automation. Here are four ways workload automation can be used in the finance industry:

Reporting. Throughout financial services organizations, analysts and other financial professionals need faster, more frequent reporting. IT departments also require constant reports and updates as well. The need to provide multitudes of reports, sometimes for hundreds of users and based on thousands of data sources, can be overwhelming.

Intelligent workload automation can streamline and consolidate reporting using parameters in pre-built job steps instead of through hard coding. Stock notifications, for example, can be reported according to virtually any pricing parameter, along with custom alerts as needed. By setting calls for data, triggers for specific reports, scheduling according to business rules, distributions based on dependencies and so on, report management can be minimized dramatically.

For IT, automated reporting also provides greater visibility over workload performance. Staff can quickly identify potential processing bottlenecks and analyze workload runtimes, then allocate resources appropriately to ensure smooth fulfillment of reporting tasks.

Security and compliance. High-profile security hacks as well as Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and other industry regulations are driving top-level emphasis on financial enterprise security. Automation solutions give IT the ability to pre-establish data security protocols such as requiring user authorizations before performing tasks that require access to sensitive information.

More importantly, however, automation platforms provide ready-made evidence of compliance with privacy and security mandates. Independent audit organizations can actually use workflow printouts to validate system backups, reporting schedules and permission policies according to regulations.

Product/pricing information. Real-time data, as well as calculations related to that data, are vital to financial organizations. Terabytes of structured and unstructured data must pass through various data systems before it can be used to support transactions, web services and business intelligence applications.

The best workload automation platforms are built for big data. Built-in integration with common ETL tools, BI solutions and file transfer applications allow such platforms to become a hub for processing, instantly giving employees and customers/members the information they need. Furthermore, these solutions are equipped to generate automated alerts for two purposes: One, to ensure reduction in workflow errors; and two, to notify key parties – traders, product managers, customers/members and so on – when transaction opportunities arise.

Onboarding/off-boarding. Provisioning and de-provisioning new employees can be a bottleneck for any organization – and the technology-rich nature of the financial services industry only complicates the challenge due to the volume of devices, permissions, connections and application infrastructure involved. Automation can minimize the burden of employee onboarding by instantly executing pre-established protocols for employees based on function, department and location.

Automation solutions reduce errors when setting up or closing out accounts and authorizations. The potential of workload automation to simplify these routine tasks extends to new business as well; a new customer/member or sale, for example, can trigger entries into CRM and accounting systems.

Most financial institutions understand the value of IT automation, but they struggle with multiple automation tools acquired over time to handle specific systems or projects. According to Gartner, the average enterprise has more than three automation tools in use. Typically, these are discrete solutions that, over time, add complexity to IT responsibilities.

To truly close today's IT resource gap, it's important to have a unified automation strategy capable of automating IT and business processes across the enterprise. A centralized solution removes the silos of automation, simplifies end-to-end processes and, best of all, frees up IT to address other changes impacting the business.

Kaitlin Olcott is marketing communications coordinator for Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. She can be reached at 973-539-2660 ext. 165 or kolcott@advsyscon.com.

Instant Insights /

4 Things FIs Don&rsquo;t Realize They Can Automate

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